Charles Williams : alchemy and integration / Gavin Ashenden.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ashenden, Gavin, 1954- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fantasy literature, English--History and criticism.

Fantasy literature, English.

Mysticism in literature.

Hermetism in literature.

Alchemy in literature.

Theology in literature.

Christianity in literature.

Williams, Charles, 1886-1945--Criticism and interpretation.

Williams, Charles.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (230 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Kent, Ohio : The Kent State University Press, 2008.

Summary:

An examination of the tumultuous inner life of this poet and writer He was a close friend of T. S. Eliot, deeply admired by C. S. Lewis, inspirational for W. H. Auden in his journey to faith, and a literary sparring partner for J. R. R. Tolkien. Yet half a century after his death, much of Charles Williams's life and work remains an enigma. The questions that arose from his immersion in Rosicrucian and hermetic culture and ideology-central to understanding Williams's thought and art remain provocatively unexplored. For a decade of his early adulthood, Williams was a member of the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, a form of neo-Rosicrucianism. There is widespread confusion about its nature, which is to be expected given that this was a semisecret society. Though Williams left his formal association with it behind, it enriched and informed his imaginative world with a hermetic myth that expressed itself in an underlying ideology and metaphysics. In Charles Williams: Alchemy and Integration, Gavin Ashenden explores both the history behind the myths and metaphysics Williams was to make his own and the hermetic culture that influenced him. He examines and interprets its expressions in Williams's novels, poetry, and the development of his ideas and relates these elements to Williams's unpublished letters to his platonic lover, Celia, written toward the end of his life. Since one of the foremost ideas in Williams's work is the interdependence or co-inherence of both our humanity and the creation, understanding the extent to which he lived and achieved this in his own life is important. Williams's private correspondence with Celia is of particular interest both for its own sake, since it was previously unknown, and for the insight it offers into his personality and muse.

Contents:

Intro

Halftitle Page

Title Page

Dedication

Copyright Page

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter One: The Encounter between Poet and Magus

Chapter Two: Modern Hermeticism

Chapter Three: The Q'abalah, The Secret Doctrine in Israel, and the Influence of A. E. Waite

Chapter Four: The "Two Ways" and the "Theology of Romantic Love"

Chapter Five: Alchemy as Metanarrative

Chapter Six: The Goetic, Theurgic, and Wisdom Traditions

Chapter Seven: The Integration of the Natural and Supernatural in Charles Williams

Chapter Eight: The Second Phase of Maturation

Chapter Nine: Vocabulary and Imagery

Chapter Ten: The Quest for Integration: "A Century" and Correspondence from the Later Years

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781612778846

1612778844

OCLC:

922995291